BWW Review: OLIVER BOITO's Notes Of Love EP

Notes of Love is Oliver Boito's debut CD and first venture into releasing his own music. An artist and photographer in addition to being a writer and composer, Boito has an impressive set of skills, and Notes of Love is something that he should be incredibly proud of.

Boito has collaborated with an array of West End stars, along with orchestrator Simon Nathan and producer Joe Davison - clearly a labour of love for the writer. Each song on the album has wonderful storytelling in its delivery and although all are ballads, they are very different to one another.

Opening with "I'll Always Stay" could be a good or bad move, seeing as it's the best number on the CD. It has the epic nature of a Disney love duet - in the best possible sense. Stuart Matthew Price dominates the song, but Siubhan Harrison joining sends it to a whole new level (world!). The blend of their voices and the harmonies are sublime.

Oliver Savile singing "I've Finally Met You" sets a great scene, but struggles slightly as a standalone song on such an album. In the context of a show, however, it would doubtless be superb. "Sometimes" combines beautiful vocals from Sharon Sexton and Sooz Kempner, while "Alone" by Rob Houchen captures the emotion of the number brilliantly.

The EP ends with "Why Do I Lose The Ones I Love", performed by Jodie Steele. Her tone is exquisite and I had a Voice moment about two seconds in when I would have spun my chair round!

Oliver Boito has done what he set out to achieve, and I look forward to future music from this talented man.

Notes of Loveis out now and is available on iTunes, Apple Music and Spotify